Nowadays, Computed Tomography (CT) has become one of the indispensable routine diagnostic techniques in the modern medical field. In a CT device, a radiation source is one of the most important consumable items. Rational use and maintenance of the radiation source are very important for extending the service life of the CT device and obtaining stable results from the CT device. It's necessary to pay attention to its heat capacity when the radiation source is in operation. If the CT device implements a clinical sequence scanning to a target object when the heat capacity is lower than a threshold value, the radiation source may be damaged.
In clinical practices, after a scout image scanning is implemented to the target object, it is required to determine whether the heat capacity is lower than the threshold value. If yes, a warm-up scanning process may be implemented to the CT radiation source to increase the heat capacity and thereby protect the radiation source. After the warm-up scanning, a clinical sequence scanning process may be implemented to the target object. If the current heat capacity is not lower than the threshold value, a clinical sequence scanning process may be implemented directly after the scout image scanning process.
However, during the warm-up scanning process, the target object may need to be unloaded from a patient table and moved out of the scanner room to avoid unnecessary ionization radiation. As a result, when the target object comes back to the patient table, his/her new position on the table may be different from the original position before he/she leaves, which means another scout image scanning may be necessary. Therefore, for implementing the warm-up scanning, not only inconvenience may be caused for moving the target object, which may be a serious problem when the target object has an injury or severe illness, but also the target object may suffer extra ionization radiation from another scout image scanning for relocation.